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Bryan Burrough: Public Enemies, Take One

I never thought I would write these words: I wish I was in Wisconsin. In fact, it's killing me that I'm not.

Here's the problem. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Hollywood is making a movie out of a book I wrote a while back, Public Enemies. The director, Michael Mann, the man behind Heat and Last of the Mohicans, and, of course, Miami Vice, is right now taking over the village of Columbus, Wisconsin, north of Madison. His crews are transforming it into a 1930s-era town whose bank will be robbed by Johnny Depp, playing John Dillinger, when filming officially begins on March 17, a week from Monday.

I won't be there when Mr. Depp first pulls out his Thompson gun to terrify the bank tellers. I just wrote the book. This is Michael Mann's movie. He'll do a great job, I have no doubt, but still, well, this must be what it feels like to see your daughter get married. You spend all those years raising her, teaching her, creating her—loving her—and now a handsome guy is swooping in to take your place in her life.It's a little embarassing to admit, but not much. Public Enemies was a real labor of love, the most fun I've ever had researching and writing a book. It tells the story of not only Dillinger, the charismatic Midwestern bank robber, but of a half dozen criminals gangs pursued by J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI in 1933 and 1934: Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and the Ma Barker gang. Defeating them all created the modern F.B.I.

For going on three months now, I've been scanning the Internet for tidbits on the movie's progress. First there was the casting, Depp as Dillinger, the terrific Christian Bale as his F.B.I. nemesis, Melvin Purvis, the Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's girl, Billie Frechette. Then a raft of stories in the Wisconsin newspapers as location scouts began popping up in Oshkosh and Baraboo and Milwaukee. A few weeks back they began casting extras and antique automobiles.

Now, as Mann and Depp and the rest of the cast have assembled in Chicago to begin filming, I sit here in my office alone, hoping my literary child has a wonderful wedding. I finally decided to deal with my gentle estrangement by blogging about it. Our plan is that VF.com will carry regular update on the film's progress for at least the length of the shooting schedule, which should go through late June.